Coro and the Connected Home on Despierta América

There are a few connected home kits in the market, the Iris from Lowe’s, is a good starting point for anyone that wants to start having more control over their home. The kit we showed comes with a central hub that connects all devices together that then need to be plugged into your home router so they can be accessed remotely. It comes with a variety of sensors that include an infrared motion sensor, a smart plug that allows you to remotely turn on or off anything connected to it, door and window sensors, a smart thermostat, a keypad and a range extender. This all works with the Iris app on your phone that’s pretty easy to use. With something like this, you can save money on energy, improve your home security and take control of some basic functions for your smart home.

We also featured the Mother from Sen.Se that is a pretty cool gadget. It has an uncanny resemblance to a Matryoshka doll and works with small, smart motion sensors called cookies that are pretty versatile and are small enough that they can be attached to all kinds of things. They detect motion on and around them and even have a temperature sensor. That way, they can act as smart motion detectors that sense the presence and report on the objects they are attached to or simply nearby. Examples? Know the temperature in a room, if your kid came home from school, whether grandpa took his medicine, if anyone crossed the front door, etc. There are as many potential functions as you can imagine. The management portal was fairly simple but it takes some basic training. Overall, this is a product with great potential.

The TruTankless is the Rolls Royce of smart water heaters. It won a prize for best home technology product at IBS2014. Hot water represents 25% of home energy costs and believe it or not, it adds up fast. According to TruTankless, they use 50% less energy than traditional water heaters since they only work when they have to. Also, they claim that average households waste 16,000 gallons a year waiting for hot water to push the cold water out of the pipes. This water heater connects to your Wi-Fi network and can be controlled with an app compatible with IOS and Android where you can adjust power consumption, regulate temperature precisely, configure what to do when a leak is detected or when something breaks in the system. It’s also compatible with home automation systems so you can control everything in one place. Here is a kicker, if you have a business or a very large house, they can wirelessly talk to each other to regulate temperature. Not bad.

We also showcased the Lutron Caséta wireless remote controlled lights that you can integrate with the Nexia or other home control hubs to turn them on, off or dim them using a remote control or an app on your phone.

The Schlage Nexia Electronic Touch is a smart lock we also showed that can be opened using a keypad or remotely using an app. You can lock and unlock the doors from anywhere, create lock codes for your family members and special codes that can only be used on a certain day at a specific time. It can also text you when a code is used or even trigger an alarm when it senses a forced entry.

Last but not least, we showed the Chamberlain MyQ Garage which is a universal garage door controller that you can operate from an app on your phone. It connects to your existing garage door opener, your Wi-Fi network and it’s as simple as it gets, you can open or close the door remotely but better yet, you can tell if you forgot to close your garage door. I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use this.